LIBRARY 

UNIVERSITY  OP 
CALIFOQNIA 


Lft 
3- 


PAULINE  AGASSIZ  SHAW 

February     8,  1841 
February  10,  1917 


PAULINEAGASSIZ  SHAW 


Tributes  paid  her  memory 
at  the 

^MEMORIAL   SERVICE 

held  on  Easter  Sunday 
April  8,  1917,  at 

FANEUIL  HALL 
BOSTON 


BOSTON 

^PRINTED 
1917 


McGrath-Sherrill  Press,  Boston 


FOREWORD 


WITH  the  passing  of  a  great  personality,  a  great  spirit- 
ual leader,  there  remains  to  the  world  a  rare  heritage, 
a  vital  benefaction.  Exceptional  natures  filled  with  the  spirit 
of  brotherhood, —  helpful,  courageous,  sincere,  without  preju- 
dice, and  above  selfish  ambition,  reveal  by  their  lives  to  what 
humanity  may  attain.  Such  a  one  was  Pauline  Agassiz  Shaw. 

'This  little  book  made  from  memories  of  men  and  women  who 
knew  and  loved  her  can  give  but  glimpses  of  the  greatnejj.  of 
her  soul,  but  these  glimpses,  incomplete  as  they  are,  should  be- 
long not  only  to  the  intimate  group  of  her  friends  and  co-workers 
but  to  a  wider  circle  —  to  all  who  sympathize  with  the  pur- 
poses of  her  life  and  work.  'These  impressions,  therefore,  are 
put  into  print.  A  few  words  of  biography  are  added  for  those 
who  may  be  strangers  to  the  fafts  of  her  life  though  not  to  the 
influence  of  her  loving  spirit. 

'Pauline  Agassiz  was  born  in  Neuchatel,  Switzerland,  Feb- 
ruary 6,  1841,  the  youngest  child  of  Louis  Agassiz  and  of  his 
first  wife,  Cecile  Braun.  Delicate,  loving,  beautiful,  with  a 
mind  of  unusual  insight,  Pauline  was  the  idol  of  her  parents 
and  of  her  brother  and  sister. 

*After  the  death  of  their  mother  in  1848,  the  three  children 
lived  with  relatives  in  Switzerland  till  1850  when  they  joined 
their  father  in  Cambridge,  Massachusetts,  where  their  educa- 
tion was  completed.  On  November  30, 1860,  Pauline  married 
Quincy  Adams  Shaw. 

Out  of  the  effort  to  discover  the  best  methods  of  training  her 
own  five  children  and  the  children  of  some  of  her  friends,  grew 
Mrs.  Shaw's  practical  interest  in  education.  Her  school,  estab- 
lished at  6  Marlborough  Street,  Boston,  made  a  significant 
contribution  to  the  science  of  education.  It  was  a  pioneer  in 
demonstrating  many  of  the  progressive  principles  of  modern 


pedagogy.  From  this  interest  in  children  and  in  education  in 
general  developed  her  devotion  to  the  various  causes  and  phil- 
anthropies which  filled  her  life  with  joyous  service. 

She  had  never  been  so  well,  nor  more  actively  absorbed  in  all 
the  vital  forces  of  modern  life  than  in  the  last  two  years  of  her 
life.  While  her  personal  correspondence ;  committee  work,  and 
other  manifold  duties  filled  many  happy  hours  of  each  day,  she 
found  her  deepest  joy  in  the  companionship  of  her  children  and 
her  grandchildren.  It  was  in  the  midst  of  such  activity  and 
happiness  that  the  summons  came — swift,  unforeseen,  inexora- 
ble. After  an  illness  of  little  more  than  a  week,  she  died  of 
pneumonia  on  February  10, 


Fifteen  hundred  copies 

of  this  tribute  have  been  printed  by  the  friends  of 

Mrs.  Shaw  under  the  direction  of  a 

committee  on  publication. 


ROSE  DABNEY  MALCOLM  FORBES 

ADELENE  MOFFAT 

GEORGE  COURTRIGHT  GREENER 


CONTENTS 

Pauline  Agassiz  Shaw  ....         Frontispiece 

Opening  of  Services  Mrs.  Norwood  Penrose  Hallowell .     27 

Opening  Address  Dr.  Charles  W.  Eliot        .        .     29 

Kindergartens  Miss  Laura  Fisher    .        .        .     32 

Day  Nurseries  Miss  Adelene  Moffat          .        -37 

Sloyd  Gustaf  Larsson            .          .          -43 

North  Rennet  Street  Industrial  School 

George  C.  Greener     .          .  -47 

Neighborhood  Houses  Robert  A.  Woods       .        .  .50 

Suffrage  Mrs.  Maud  Wood  Park       .  -55 

Peace  Mrs.  J.  Malcolm  Forbes      .  -59 

Address  Mrs.  Maud  Ballington  Booth  .     63 

OTHER  ACTIVITIES  OF  MRS.  SHAW 

The  Roxbury  Neighborhood  House          .          .          .          .  70 

Social  Service  House   .          .          .          .          .          .  70 

The  Cambridge  Neighborhood  House       .          .          .          .  7 1 

The  Ruggles  Street  Neighborhood  House  .          .          .  72 

The  Cottage  Place  Neighborhood  House  and  Day  Nursery  .          -73 
The  North  Bennet  Street  Day  Nursery  .          .          .          .          -74 

Long- Sought- For  Lodge        .......     74 

The  Children's  House  .......     74 

The  Cottage  Place  Library  .          .          .          .          .          .          •     75 

The  Vocation  Bureau  .          .          .          .          .          .          -75 

The  Civic  Service  House      .          .          .          .          .          .          •     78 


A  TRIBUTE  TO 


PAULINE    AGASSIZ    SHAW 


FANEUIL  HALL 
EASTER  SUNDAY,  APRIL  EIGHTH 

NINETEEN  HUNDRED  SEVENTEEN 


Order  of  Services 

* 

MUSIC  "Still,  Still  with  Thee" 

BY  THE  CHOIR 

INTRODUCTION 

His  Excellency,  The  Governor  of  the  Commonwealth 
of  Massachusetts,  has  been  invited  to  introduce  the 
Presiding  Officer. 

OPENING  ADDRESS  by  the  Presiding  Officer, 
DR.  CHARLES  W.  ELIOT 

KINDERGARTENS 

MISS  LAURA  FISHER 

DAY  NURSERIES 

MISS  ADELENE  MOFFAT 


SLOYD 


GUSTAF  LARSSON 


NORTH  BENNETT  STREET 
INDUSTRIAL  SCHOOL 

GEORGE  C.   GREENER 


MUSIC  Handel's  "Largo" 

NEIGHBORHOOD  HOUSES 

ROBERT  C.  WOODS 


SUFFRAGE 

MRS.  MAUD  WOOD  PARK 

PEACE 

MRS.  J.  MALCOLM  FORBES 

ADDRESS 

MRS.  MAUD  BALLINGTON  BOOTH 

MUSIC  -  "For  All  Thy  Saints" 

BY  THE  CHOIR 


Committee  on  Arrangements 

JOHN  D.  ADAMS,  Chairman 
* 

BOSTON  SOCIAL  UNION 

BOSTON  CONFERENCES  OF  DAY  NURSERIES 

BOSTON  KINDERGARTEN  ASSSOCIATION 

BOSTON  EQUAL  SUFFRAGE  ASSOCIATION 
FOR  GOOD  GOVERNMENT 

MASSACHUSETTS  WOMAN'S  SUFFRAGE  ASSOCIATION 

MASSACHUSETTS  BRANCH  OF  THE  WOMAN'S 
PEACE  PARTY 

MRS.  SHAW'S  NEIGHBORHOOD  HOUSES 

VOCATIONAL  GUIDANCE  DEPARTMENT  OF  HARVARD 

SLOYD  TRAINING  SCHOOL 

CIVIC  SERVICE  HOUSE 

BOSTON  VOCATION  BUREAU 

NORTH  BENNET  STREET  INDUSTRIAL  SCHOOL 


fj: 


PAULINE  AGASSIZ  SHAW 


OPENING  OF  SERVICES 

<MRS.  NORWOOD  TEN  ROSE  HALLO  WELL 

We  are  gathered  here  to-day  to  pay  our   loving 
tribute  to  our  beloved  friend,  Pauline  Agassiz  Shaw: 

Blessed  are  the  pure  in  heart:  for  they  shall  see  God. 

Blessed  are  the  peacemakers:  for  they  shall  be  called 
the  children  of  God. 

Lord,  thou  hast  been  our  dwelling  place  in  all  gene- 
rations. Before  the  mountains  were  brought  forth, 
or  ever  thou  hadst  formed  the  earth  and  the  world, 
even  from  everlasting  to  everlasting,  thou  art  God. 

Whither  shall  I  go  from  thy  Spirit ;  or  whither  shall 
I  flee  from  thy  presence  ? 

If  I  ascend  up  into  Heaven,  thou  art  there. 

If  I  take  the  wings  of  the  morning  and  dwell  in  the 
uttermost  parts  of  the  sea ;  even  there  shall  thy 
hand  lead  me,  and  thy  right  hand  shall  hold  me. 

If  I  say,  surely  the  darkness  shall  cover  me  ;  even  the 
night  shall  be  light  about  me. 

Yea,  the  darkness  hideth  not  from  thee  ;  but  the  night 
shineth  as  the  day ;  the  darkness  and  the  light  are 
both  alike  to  thee. 


MY    AIM 

I  live  for  those  who  love  me, 

Whose  hearts  are  kind  and  true, 
For  the  Heaven  that  smiles  above  me, 
And  awaits  my  spirit  too; 

For  all  human  ties  that  bind  me, 
For  the  task  by  God  assigned  me; 
For  the  bright  hopes  yet  to  find  me, 
And  the  good  that  I  can  do. 

I  live  to  hail  the  season, 

By  gifted  ones  foretold, 
When  man  shall  live  by  reason, 
And  not  alone  for  gold ; 
When  man  to  man  united, 
And  every  wrong  thing  righted, 
The  whole  world  shall  be  lighted, 
As  Eden  was  of  old. 

I  live  for  those  who  love  me, 

For  those  who  know  me  true; 
For  the  Heaven  that  smiles  above  me, 
And  awaits  my  spirit  too; 

For  the  cause  that  lacks  assistance, 
For  the  wrong  that  needs  resistance, 
For  the  future  in  the  distance, 
And  the  good  that  I  can  do. 

Let  us  unite  in  silent  prayer,  asking  and  waiting  for 
the  strength  which  can  come  only  from  the  loving 
Father  of  us  all. 


OPENING  ADDRESS 

T)R.     tu'X'Es  w.  ELIOT 


WE  have  come  here  to  celebrate  the  achievements 
of  Pauline  Agassiz  Shaw,  to  rejoice  in  the  good 
work  she  did  for  this  community  and  for  the  univer- 
sal improvement  of  education  and  philanthropy.  Her 
life  had  in  it  many  trials  and  sorrows,  but  also  many 
neart-felt  joys  and  solid  satisfactions. 

I  first  knew  Pauline  Agassiz  as  a  beautiful  and  grace- 
ful girl,  a  very  serviceable  daughter  in  a  house  which 
had  few  servants  but  abounded  in  hospitalities.  I  shall 
never  lose  the  impression  of  her  grace  and  beauty 
when,  at  an  evening  party  at  her  father's  house, 
she  brought  me  a  cup  of  coffee  across  the  room. 
I  remember  with  the  utmost  distinction  her  delight- 
ful aspect  when  she  was  a  pupil  in  the  unique  school 
for  girls  which  was  conducted  for  a  few  years  in  her 
father's  Cambridge  house. 

She  was  married  at  nineteen,  and  then  suddenly 
transferred  from  a  house  where  means  were  narrow 
to  a  house  where  means  were  ample  ;  a  house  full,  too, 
of  beautiful  objects  of  art.  There  her  children  were 
born  and  brought  up.  During  all  her  married  life  she 
had  at  her  command  a  large  income  which  she  used 
at  her  discretion,  not  for  any  purpose  of  private  luxury 
but  altogether  for  purposes  of  public  usefulness  and 
beneficence. 


Educational  work  from  the  first  enlisted  Mrs.  Shaw's 
interest  and  support.  I  suppose  no  private  person  in 
this  country  has  ever  done  so  much  for  kindergartens 
as  Mrs.  Shaw  did.  She  gave  the  public  demonstrations 
of  the  usefulness  of  kindergartens,  and  did  pioneering 
work  in  introducing  them  into  Boston  and  neighbor- 
ing cities.  After  many  years  of  patient  work  and  much 
expenditure,  she  had  the  satisfaction  of  seeing  kinder- 
gartens adopted  in  Boston  and  some  other  cities  as  an 
accepted,  and  indeed  indispensable  part  of  a  good  pub- 
lic school  system. 

She  was  interested  in  developing  in  public  and  private 
schools  the  kind  of  teaching  which  she  had  seen  her 
father  give.  Professor  Agassiz  was  descended  from  a 
stock  of  ministers  and  teachers  in  Switzerland,  and 
was  himself  an  eminent  naturalist  and  fascinating  lec- 
turer. Her  mother  was  the  daughter  of  a  family  famous 
in  Germany  for  both  its  scientific  and  its  artistic  qual- 
ities and  achievements.  Mrs.  Shaw  had  both  these 
inheritances  in  her  blood.  She  was  always  interested 
in  concrete  teaching,  in  training  the  senses,  in  impart- 
ing the  knowledge  and  the  mental  training  which 
come  in  through  the  eye,  the  ear,  and  the  hand,  and 
in  cultivating  through  such  training  the  scientific 
method  of  thought.  Much  of  her  public  work  for 
education  exhibited  this  tendency  to  bring  into  edu- 
cation, for  all  sorts  of  children  and  adolescents,  a 
larger  proportion  of  concrete  teaching  and  of  prac- 


tice   in  observation,  and   in   the  inductive  mode  of 
reasoning. 

Mrs.  Shaw  had  the  most  ardent  faith  in  the  prac- 
ticability of  improving  greatly  education,  and  social 
and  political  organization,  and  hence  in  improving 
the  common  lot  of  humanity  and  so  making  man- 
kind happier. 


KINDERGARTENS 

J^AURA 


Introduced  by  Thr.  Eliot 

WE  are  to  hear  this  afternoon  several  competent  testimonies  to  this  hopefulness 
in  Mrs.  Shaw  which  resulted  in  many  forms  of  beneficent  activity.  I  present 
to  you  as  our  first  witness  Miss  Laura  Fisher,  who  will  tell  you  about  the  original- 
ity, scope,  and  wide-spread  influence  of  Mrs.  Shaw's  work  for  Kindergartens. 

MOST  people  speak  of  Mrs.  Shaw  as  a  great- 
hearted philanthropist  —  kindergartners  like  to 
remember  her  as  a  great  pioneer  in  education.  For  edu- 
cation was  her  passion  and  the  kindergarten,  as  she  said 
only  recently,  was  her  first  love—  the  one  from  which  all 
her  other  loves  sprang.  No  other  individual  supported 
the  kindergarten  so  liberally  or  rendered  greater  public 
service  by  means  of  it.  To  realize  in  some  degree  the 
significance  of  her  work  we  need  to  recall  its  history. 

As  early  as  1867  Miss  Peabody  began  her  efforts  in 
the  interest  of  the  kindergarten  and  was  succeeded  by 
others,  notably  Miss  Garland  and  Miss  Weston  in 
connection  with  their  private  school.  It  was  not, 
however,  until  1877  that  the  kindergartens  in  Boston 
really  came  to  stay.  In  that  year  Mrs.  Shaw  opened 
two  kindergartens,  one  in  Jamaica  Plain  and  one  in 
Brookline.  Gradually  others  were  established  in  Bos- 
ton and  Cambridge  until  in  1883  Mrs.  Shaw  supported 
3  1  free  kindergartens.  Many  of  these  were  located  in 
public  school  buildings  but  all  the  expense  of  salaries 
and  maintenance  was  borne  by  Mrs.  Shaw. 

32 


Under  the  able  direction  of  Miss  Laliah  Pingree, 
without  whom  even  Mrs.  Shaw  could  not  have  accom- 
plished her  results,  the  kindergartens  became  a  power 
in  the  educational  system  of  Boston.  In  1888  at  the 
invitation  of  Mrs.  Shaw  the  School  Committee  made 
an  investigation  into  the  value  of  the  kindergarten, 
with  the  result  that  the  14  kindergartens  in  Boston 
supported  by  her,  were  taken  over  by  the  city. 

It  was  a  glad  day  when  the  city  adopted  the  kin- 
dergartens but  it  was  a  sad  day  when  they  passed 
out  of  Mrs.  Shaw's  keeping.  I  wish  I  might  give  you 
some  idea  of  what  her  personal  touch  meant  to  every- 
body !  Who  can  ever  forget  those  wonderful  days 
when  the  boxes  of  flowers  arrived,  sent  by  Mrs.  Shaw 
to  make  the  kindergartens  beautiful  ?  Or  when  "  the 
fairy  god-mother  "  herself  appeared  with  her  wistful 
gaiety  and  made  all  hearts  glad  ?  Which  one  of  us 
fails  to  remember  her  modesty  and  humility  as  she 
sat  and  listened  to  young  upstarts  in  education  who 
thought  they  carried  the  salvation  of  the  world  on 
their  shoulders  ?  Her  presence  turned  everything  into 
poetry  and  every  kindergarten  into  fairyland. 

One  great  significance  of  Mrs.  Shaw's  work  was  the 
fact  that  she  initiated  the  kindergarten  movement  in  the 
East.  Isolated  attempts  to  establish  public,  private 
and  charitable  kindergartens  had  been  made  in  various 
places,  but  with  Mrs.  Shaw's  organized  system  of 
model  kindergarten  work  under  expert  supervision 

33 


and  direction  the  kindergarten  became  a  part  of  a 
great  educational  movement,  and  from  her  success 
Philadelphia,  New  York  and  other  cities  took  heart 
and  the  kindergarten  was  planted  in  the  East  for  good. 

I  wonder  how  many  of  you  know  how  far-reaching 
the  influence  of  her  kindergarten  was.  Do  you  realize 
that  Mrs.  Shaw's  kindergartens  were  the  first  social 
and  educational  centers  connected  with  the  schools, 
and  that  her  kindergartners  were  the  first  social 
workers  and  visitors  who  went  from  the  school  into 
the  home  ?  Are  you  aware  that  Mothers'  Meetings 
and  Parents'  Clubs  originated  in  these  kindergartens 
and  that  Mrs.  Shaw  provided  instruction  in  many 
subjects,  besides  the  care  and  education  of  children,  to 
grown  people  ? 

Her  kindergartens  were  the  first  Community  Centers 
where  little  children  were  helped  to  realize  their  rela- 
tion to  the  larger  world  surrounding  home  and  school. 
By  the  kindergartners  they  were  taken  on  excursions 
to  field  and  garden,  pond  and  stream,  to  workshops 
and  public  buildings,  that  they  might  know  some- 
thing of  the  great  world  in  which  they  lived.  Great 
national  days  and  great  national  heroes  were  celebrated 
in  song  and  story,  and  exercises  to  kindle  in  young 
hearts  the  first  spark  of  patriotism  and  thrill  them 
with  the  first  faint  sense  of  citizenship. 

We  forget  now  that  the  schools  have  adopted  so 
many  of  the  ideas  and  practices  of  the  kindergarten, — 

34 


and  imagine  that  they  originated  them ;—  we  forget 
that  here  in  Boston  Mrs.  Shaw's  work  was  their  begin- 
ning and  that  she  had  the  wisdom  and  the  imagination 
that  enabled  her  to  realize  their  value  and  their 
meaning. 

Like  Froebel  she  saw  the  child  in  the  light  of  its 
possibilities  and  relationships.  Seeing,  as  has  been  said, 
"the  uncommon  quality  in  the  common  man  "  she  was 
ready  to  bend  every  effort  to  abet  its  development. 

Again,  like  Froebel,  she  believed  that  in  this  land 
of  ours  with  its  conscious  ideal  of  freedom  the  kinder- 
garten would  find  its  true  home  and  its  adequate  em- 
bodiment. She  knew  that  the  soul  of  America  must 
be  stirred  into  life  in  the  souls  of  little  children  and 
that  through  the  child  in  its  midst  the  grown  -  up 
world  would  be  born  anew.  But  she  was  not  content 
to  regenerate  the  poor  alone.  She  saw  that  the  "poor 
little  rich  child  and  the  rich  little  poor  child  "  had 
many  needs  in  common.  That  they  all  trailed  clouds, 
not  always  of  glory  —  and  that  for  all  alike  citizen- 
ship in  heaven  must  be  won  by  painful  and  persistent 
effort.  So  her  last  venture  was  the  opening  of  a  Kin- 
dergarten and  a  Kindergarten  training  school  in 
connection  with  her  private  school  at  number  6 
Marlborough  Street.  She  was  anxious  that  the  divine 
spark  in  every  child  should  be  fed  and  nursed  into 
living  flame ; —  upon  whom  should  the  task  fall  ? 
Whose  is  this  greatest  of  privileges  ?  Mrs.  Shaw's 

35 


reply  could  be  but  one,  —  the  mother's.  Her  training 
school  was  established  not  only  to  prepare  professional 
kindergartners.  She  had  in  view  the  education  of  all 
girls  for  the  vocation  of  Motherhood.  This  to  her 
mind  constituted  the  highest  education  of  women. 
We  ask  ourselves,  what  do  all  these  efforts  signify? 
I  think  the  answer  is  —  Mrs.  Shaw  dreamed  dreams. 
She  had  a  vision.  She,  too,  saw  a  new  heaven  —  and  a 
new  earth,  a  holy  city,  and  at  its  heart  she  beheld 
divine  childhood  nurtured  by  divinely  inspired 
motherhood. 

May  consecrated  obedience  to  this  vision  help  to 
bring  forth  that  redeemed  humanity  from  which  shall 
spring  once  again  the  healing  of  the  nations. 


DAY  NURSERIES 


Introduced  by  'Dr.  Eliot 

WE  are  to  hear  next  about  Mrs.  Shaw's  day  nurseries.  Day  Nurseries  had 
previously  existed  in  Europe,  but  I  believe  Mrs.  Shaw's  results  were  better 
than  any  that  had  been  previously  obtained.  They  were  an  important  part  of 
her  remarkable  pioneering  in  social  work.  I  present  to  you  Miss  Adelene  Moffat. 

A1ONG  all  the  things  that  Mrs.  Shaw  has  loved 
tenderly,  two  from  the  earliest  years  of  her  deli- 
cate childhood,  she  has  seemed  to  love  more  than 
others  :  children  and  flowers.  This  love  was  a  part  of 
the  intimate  fibre  of  her  being,  she  was  like  a  child, 
and  she  was  like  a  flower.  Once  she  said  to  me,  "I 
have  always  thought  that  if  I  had  had  to  earn  my  liv- 
ing, I  should  have  opened  a  greenhouse.  "  I  replied, 
"  But  what  a  wonderful  matron  of  a  day  nursery  would 
have  been  lost!"  With  that  youthful,  rippling  laugh 
that  all  of  us  who  love  her  will  cherish  in  our  memo- 
ries, she  glanced  radiant  with  happiness  at  the  photo- 
graphs of  her  children  and  grandchildren  which  she 
loved  to  keep  near  her  and  said,  "Isn't  a  matron  of  a 
nursery  exactly  what  I  have  been  !  "  And  this  is  true 
in  a  much  larger  sense  than  she  intended  to  convey. 
Her  all  -  embracing  motherliness  has  for  more  than 
thirty  years  gathered  into  safe  shelter  forlorn  little 
ones  deprived  of  their  mothers'  care  through  poverty, 
or  illness,  or  desertion,  or  death.  While  she,  herself, 
was  only  a  little  girl  she  used  to  seek  out  families  of 

37 


neglected  children  and  give  them  such  comfort  and 
help  as  she  could  compass.  No  one  seems  to  remember 
how  she  found  them.  Perhaps  some  of  them  she  dis- 
covered on  those  long  walks  to  a  Cambridgeport 
greenhouse  where  she  used  to  spend,  what  was  no 
doubt,  a  very  extravagant  proportion  of  her  little 
allowance  to  buy  seeds  and  slips  from  her  friend  "  the 
greenhouse  man."  These  she  would  bring  home  to 
her  sunny  window  where  everything  flourished  as  if 
at  magic  touch,  and  it  was  her  delight  to  see  how 
many  plants  she  could  grow  from  these  small  begin- 
nings, gathering  her  choicest  blossoms  and  taking 
them  to  eager  half-starved  little  souls  in  neglected 
neighborhoods.  In  this  loving  service  the  child  fore- 
shadowed the  woman.  One  can  visualize  her :  slight, 
ardent,  vivid,  delicate,  very  beautiful,  with  singular 
radiance  of  expression,  that  enthusiasm,  that  gaiety 
of  spirit  which  people  who  knew  her  as  a  child  re- 
member, and  those  who  are  children  now  will  remem- 
ber of  her  later  years.  In  these  visits  she  would  know 
no  distinction  of  color,  or  race,  or  creed,  almost  none 
of  good  or  bad.  Selfishness,  egotism,  cruelty,  meanness, 
untruthfulness,  badness  of  heart,  were  revolting  to  her 
in  a  measure  not  easily  understood  by  less  delicately 
tempered  natures,  but  her  faith  that  these  qualities 
were  recessive,  that  good  was  dominant,  gave  her  a 
constructive  basis  for  work  and  the  courage  to  persevere 
in  the  face  of  every  difficulty. 

38 


In  1877  she  started  her  first  day  nursery  in  connec- 
tion with  one  of  the  kindergartens.  In  1879  anc^  J88o 
seven  others  followed  in  and  near  Boston.  From  the 
first,  her  rare,  constructive  mind  saw  beyond  the  con- 
fines of  the  nursery  into  the  worlds  of  the  little  ones 
when  they  should  leave  its  hospitable  care.  Education 
of  the  child  and  of  the  mother  and  of  the  community 
became  at  once  an  integral  part  of  the  plan.  One  of 
the  very  earliest  reports  says  "the  aim  has  been  not  only 
to  provide  for  the  care  and  training  of  the  children  in 
the  kindergarten  method  but  to  reach  the  home 
through  the  influence  of  the  work  and  the  visiting  of 
the  matron  in  them.  *  *  *  Mrs.  Shaw  regards  these 
nurseries  as  elementary  kindergartens.  *  *  *  In  connec- 
tion with  the  nursery,  mothers'  classes  have  been  held 
where  instruction  in  nursing,  hygiene,  temperance, 
has  been  given.  Classes  in  sewing,  cutting,  mending, 
are  held  for  women  and  girls.  Even  clubs  for  boys 
and  girls  are  also  a  part  of  the  work."  In  another 
place  effective  cooperation  with  other  organizations 
is  noted.  This  is  a  quotation  from  a  report  of  the 
nurseries  of  thirty  years  ago  !  It  would  be  considered 
progressive  in  any  nursery  to-day.  The  stand  that 
she  took  on  the  age  of  nursery  children,  on  other 
than  nursery  aid  for  the  family,  has  since  been 
generally  accepted  as  axiomatic.  Very  justly  Mrs. 
Shaw  has  been  called  one  of  the  great  pioneers  in 
social  work. 


39 


With  her  able,  enthusiastic,  and  devoted  assistant 
and  friend,  Miss  Pingree,  she  was  among  those  who 
started  the  Boston  Conference  of  Day  Nurseries.  The 
first  meeting  was  apparently  called  by  them.  This 
conference,  composed  of  the  nurseries  of  greater  Bos- 
ton and  other  cities  of  Massachusetts,  has  been  in 
operation  for  more  than  twenty  -  five  years  and  has 
been  a  strong  educative  force. 

One  of  the  interesting  features  of  Mrs.  Shaw's  nur- 
series is  the  attitude  of  those  who  spent  their  childhood 
in  them.  They  look  back  upon  the  nursery  with  no 
sense  of  its  having  been  a  charity  or  an  institution 
but  more  as  if  it  had  been  a  home  or  school.  Mrs. 
Shaw  felt  always  that  the  care  of  the  body  and  of  the 
mind  was  but  a  part.  The  utmost  patience  and  wis- 
dom must  be  engaged  that  sensitive  little  hearts  should 
not  be  hurt,  that  timid  spirits  should  not  be  oppressed. 
Three  well-mannered,  well-dressed,  capable  looking 
young  women  in  good  business  positions,  came  up  to 
me  once  in  one  of  the  Neighborhood  Houses,  their 
arms  around  each  other ;  health,  cheerfulness,  intelli- 
gence, shone  from  their  smiling  faces.  One  said  to 
me  —  almost  a  stranger  —  "  Don't  you  think  we  are 
a  good  advertisement  for  Mrs.  Shaw's  nursery  ?  That 
is  where  we  first  became  acquainted  with  each  other 
and  we've  been  friends  ever  since." 

To  work  with  Mrs.  Shaw  was  to  feel  that  the  world 
was  somehow  a  roomier,  pleasanter,  friendlier  place 

40 


to  live  in  than  one  had  thought  it  to  be.  Her  sincerity, 
her  directness,  her  fine  democracy,  her  sweetness 
cleared  up  complications  as  opening  the  blinds  will 
show  the  way  to  a  person  stumbling  through  a  dark- 
ened room  cumbered  with  useless  furniture.  Her  mind 
compelled  awe  for  its  quality,  for  the  extraordinary 
combination  revealed.  An  exceptional  mathemati- 
cian, she  might  easily  have  become  distinguished  in 
that  field.  Inheriting  scientific  instincts  and  methods 
of  reasoning  from  her  father,  and  the  vision  and  cre- 
ative imagination  of  the  artist  from  her  mother,  she 
had  powers  seldom  found  united  in  one  person.  She 
had  the  ability  and  the  will  both  to  see  things  in 
their  largest  relations  and  to  concentrate  on  detail, 
leaving  no  smallest  item  unappraised  or  overlooked. 
With  all  these  endowments,  she  was  the  most  modest 
person  I  have  ever  seen. 

Her  vision  of  what  needed  to  be  done  so  far  out- 
stripped any  possibility  of  attainment  that  what  she 
did  accomplish  seemed  to  her  negligible,  and  even 
for  that  she  was  unwilling  to  take  credit  to  herself. 
It  distressed  her  when  people  spoke  of  it.  She  always 
felt  that  they  were  giving  her  more  appreciation 
than  was  her  due.  She  could  never  believe  that  she 
had,  herself,  done  anything  or  taught  anything.  She 
was  eager  that  the  entire  credit  should  be  given 
to  her  workers,  to  her  friends,  or  to  her  wise  and 
sympathetic  husband. 


We  might  be  able  to  measure  in  bricks  and  mortar 
and  money  what  Mrs.  Shaw  has  contributed  to  the 
safety  and  happiness,  education  and  equipment  of 
others,  but  who  can  measure  what  will  have  been 
her  contribution  to  the  world  in  the  terms  of  human 
life  ?  We  know  only  this,  that  there  will  go  on  from 
generation  to  generation  through  her  less  fortunate 
neighbors,  as  by  the  laying  on  of  hands,  something 
of  her  spirit,  something  of  her  sweet  wisdom,  of  her 
hope,  her  faith,  her  holiness  of  living, —  and  her 
gaiety  of  heart ! 


SLOYD 

QVSTAF    J&CRJ1SON 

Introduced  by  'Dr.  Eliot 

MRS.  SHAW  took  a  keen  personal  interest  in  all  the  teaching  institutions  she 
established.  She  founded  and  supported  generously  for  many  years  a  school  in 
the  North  End  of  Boston  for  teaching  sloyd  and  training  teachers  of  sloyd. 
She  believed  warmly  in  the  value  of  that  training,  and  adhered  loyally  to  the 
interesting  experiment  which  she  launched.  She  developed  the  School  into  a 
School  of  craftsmanship  and  design.  Mr.  Gustaf  Larsson  has  been  for  many 
years  her  skilful  demonstrator  and  manager  of  these  modes  of  teaching.  I  pre- 
sent to  you  Mr.  Larsson. 

IN  the  summer  of  1888,  now  nearly  twenty -nine 
years  ago,  it  was  my  good  fortune  to  meet  Mrs. 
Shaw  and  to  discuss  with  her  the  possibilities  of  arous- 
ing in  teachers  an  interest  in  the  Swedish  system  of 
manual  training  known  as  sloyd. 

Mrs.  Shaw  had  already  (1887)  presented  to  the  City 
of  Boston  her  established  kindergartens  with  equip- 
ment and  trained  teachers,  and  it  was  in  two  of  her 
summer-vacation  schools  that  I  was  given  an  oppor- 
tunity to  demonstrate  this  work  in  the  teaching  of 
boys.  After  painstaking  and  thorough  observation 
Mrs.  Shaw  became  convinced  that  sloyd  was  founded 
on  the  same  principle  that  underlies  the  kindergarten 
system,  namely,  that  the  mental  and  moral  growth 
of  the  human  being  must  be  the  first  consideration 
of  every  teacher  and  that  occupations,  whether  of 
mind  or  hands,  must  serve  only  as  means  to  that  end. 

Mrs.  Shaw  believed  that  this  fundamental  principle 
of  human  development  and  education  might  in  time 

43 


become  incorporated  in  all  forms  of  teaching,  and  she 
therefore  decided  to  offer  free  instruction  in  sloyd  to 
teachers  engaged  in  work  in  kindergartens  and  graded 
schools.  As  teachers  could  come  to  us  only  out  of 
school  hours  it  was  in  June,  1892,  that  the  first  class 
of  twenty-three  sloyd  teachers  was  graduated.  During 
these  first  years  of  experiments  Mrs.  Shaw's  faith 
never  faltered.  I  believe  we  owe  it  solely  to  Mrs.  Shaw 
that  the  late  director  of  manual  training  in  Boston 
has  been  able  to  say  "  It  is  certain  that  they  (the  sloyd 
teachers)  have  been  an  important  factor  in  determin- 
ing the  high  standards  which  I  believe  Boston  has 
finally  established." 

In  order  to  make  the  principles  and  methods  of  sloyd 
widely  known  Mrs.  Shaw  sent  examples  of  work 
together  with  leaflets  to  several  exhibitions.  She  had 
a  "Life  Exhibit  of  Children  at  Work"  at  the 
World's  Fair,  Chicago ;  exhibits  at  Paris,  and  at  St. 
Louis.  Here  her  exhibit  received  the  award  of  Grand 
Prize. 

The  first  course  offered  by  the  School  was  confined 
to  wood-work,  but  in  response  to  the  more  recent 
demand  for  wider  activities,  Mrs.  Shaw  again  gave 
to  the  School  the  means  of  offering  courses  in  forging, 
machine  work,  metal  work,  bookbinding,  printing, 
cement  work,  furniture  making ;  and  in  connection 
with  this  technical  work,  courses  in  design,  and  in 
psychology  as  applied  to  teaching. 

44 


All  these  changes  necessitated  accommodations  that 
differed  materially  from  those  where,  in  four  different 
quarters,  the  School  had  done  its  first  twenty  years 
of  work;  and  in  1909  Mrs.  Shaw  erected  the  build- 
ing on  Harcourt  Street,  where,  in  furtherance  of  her 
aims,  we  are  endeavoring  to  uphold  high  standards  in 
craftsmanship  and  design;  to  test  and  to  systematize 
such  arts  and  crafts  as  are  useful  in  schools;  and  to 
select  and  prepare  suitable  persons  for  efficient  leader- 
ship in  manual  training. 

For  more  than  twenty  years  Mrs.  Shaw  gave  free 
instruction  in  her  school,  but  in  1910  she  granted  our 
request  that  a  yearly  tuition  fee  of  $100  might  be 
asked  and  that  scholarships  might  be  established  for 
the  benefit  of  worthy  and  needy  students. 

It  is  not  easy  to  estimate  the  abundance  of  good  that 
has  gone  forth  from  Mrs.  Shaw's  school  nor  its  far- 
reaching  influence.  Over  four  hundred  students,  repre- 
senting almost  every  state  in  the  Union,  have  been 
graduated  from  there.  Fifty-seven  graduates  are  teach- 
ing in  the  public  schools  of  Boston,  and  several  are  at 
work  in  foreign  countries ;  moreover,  it  is  due  to  the 
influence  of  Mrs.  Shaw's  school  that  three  of  the 
largest  states  in  India  are  to-day  training  sloyd  teachers 
under  the  authority  of  their  respective  governments. 

The  debt  of  gratitude  is  heavy  on  us.  We  owe  the 
existence  of  the  Sloyd  Training  School,  its  progress 
and  its  achievements  to  the  energy,  the  patience,  the 

45 


constructive  imagination  of  one  woman.  We  of  this 
school  cannot  repay  the  debt.  It  remains  to  us  to  be 
faithful  guardians  of  the  ideals  she  illumined  for  us, 
to  embody  these  ideals  in  the  conduct  of  her  school, 
and  everywhere  to  hold  in  unforgetting  honor  the 
name  of  Pauline  Agassiz  Shaw. 


NORTH  BENNET  STREET 
INDUSTRIAL  SCHOOL 

QEORGE  C- 


Introduced  by  'Dr.  Eliot. 

IN  this  country  most  of  the  pioneering  work  in  education  and  philanthropy  is 
done  by  private  persons  and  societies  who  spend  their  own  money  on  public 
needs.  That  is  especially  true  in  the  field  of  education,  from  kindergartens 
through  universities.  This  is  one  of  the  great  hopes  of  the  American  Republic,  — 
the  readiness  of  well-to-do  American  men  and  women  to  devote  their  time, 
thought,  labor,  and  money  to  the  advancement  of  religion,  education, 
and  charity. 

Mrs.  Shaw  had  a  strong  expectation  of  good  from  new  experiments  in  edu- 
cation; and  she  had  the  means  of  trying  costly  experiments.  One  of  her  most 
judicious  and  fruitful  experiments  was  the  North  Bennet  Street  Industrial 
School.  We  are  to  hear  next  from  the  Director  of  that  School,  Mr.  George 
C.  Greener. 

a  daughter  of  a  scientist,  Mrs.  Shaw  rightfully 
possessed  an  inquiring  mind.  If  she  had  de- 
voted herself  to  art  or  literature  some  museum  or 
library  might  have  been  enriched  by  her  work;  but 
since  she  gave  herself  largely  to  the  great  human 
problem,  not  with  a  vague  altruism,  but  with  a  perfect 
sincerity  of  having  an  engagement  with  human  life, 
she  has  left  us  an  eternal  memorial  —  living  and 
multiplying. 

She  chose,  perhaps,  the  most  discouraging  field  for 
creative  or  experimental  work  —  education. 

Traditional  methods  and  outworn  moulds  of  thought 
blocked  the  path  for  new  educational  projects.  If  it 
were  not  for  people  like  Mrs.  Shaw  with  clear  vision 

47 


—  the  faith  of  the  miracle  worker  —  and  compre- 
hending patience,  the  current  systems  of  education 
would  give  us  little  pride. 

That  educational  experiments  require  a  large  ex- 
penditure of  money  and  that  Mrs.  Shaw  could  meet 
that  requisite  was  true,  but  she  gave  a  rarer  and  more 
lasting  gift  —  an  unswerving  faith. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  the  reason  why  Mrs.  Shaw's 
mind  turned  in  this  direction.  Her  own  carefully 
supervised  education  differed  widely  from  the  accepted 
schooling.  In  deciding  the  education  of  her  own 
children  Mrs.  Shaw  moved  in  almost  untrodden  and 
pioneer  paths  of  teaching. 

With  her  broad  mind  and  wide  outlook  the  next 
step  was  to  consider  thoughtfully  how  the  facilities 
at  their  command  met  the  needs  of  the  less  fortunate 
children.  She  found  their  curriculum  inadequate,  and 
ill  fitted  to  prepare  them  for  the  highest  citizenship. 
Education  to  them  was  a  meaningless  drill,  bearing 
no  relation  to  real  life.  All  this  Mrs.  Shaw  saw  in 
what  Matthew  Arnold  called  "  a  dry  light." 

With  full  comprehension  of  and  with  no  criticisms 
for  the  existing  systems,  she  understood  that  educa- 
tional experiments  are  the  function  of  private  enter- 
prise, rather  than  of  public  institution.  Some  day 
there  will  be  a  public  school  experimental  bureau 
and  a  special  school  for  testing  out  new  possibilities 

-  passing  on  the  fruit  of  its  success,  considering  its 

48 


failures  as  a  legitimate  part  of  its  machinery,  and  hav- 
ing a  place  in  its  policy  for  illuminating  failures. 

This  experimental  work  appealed  strongly  to  Mrs. 
Shaw  and  for  thirty-five  years  she  was  the  mainspring 
of  this  work  at  North  Bennet  Street.  Because  of  the 
children  who  came  to  us  from  the  public  school, 
new  projects  have  been  examined  and  tested  out  and 
could  be  suitably  added  to  the  public  school  courses. 

In  this  way,  through  Mrs.  Shaw's  expectation  of 
good  from  the  untried,  social  work,  kindergartens, 
day  nurseries,  manual  training,  prevocational  and  in- 
dustrial classes  now  enrich  and  broaden  the  lives  of 
our  young  people.  Life  to  her  was  large  and  broad 
and  her  ideas  have  spread  across  the  country. 

While  she  had  the  joy  of  achievement  and  saw  the 
success  of  her  effort  in  terms  of  human  life,  she  never 
regarded  her  work  as  completed.  When  one  idea 
passed  from  the  laboratory  of  the  North  Bennet  School 
to  its  practical  application  in  the  public  schools,  a 
way  was  cleared  for  another  experiment;  therefore 
the  potential,  spiritual  loss  to  the  school  is  inestima- 
ble —  irreplaceable.  But  the  memory  of  her  personal 
devotion  that  governed  the  policy  and  inspired  her 
board  members  and  workers  is  a  priceless  heritage. 


49 


NEIGHBORHOOD  HOUSES 

-A.    WOODS 


Introduced  by  'Dr.  Eliot. 

ONE  of  Mrs.  Shaw's  most  striking  characteristics  was  her  ardent  faith  in  intel- 
ligent experimentation,  a  faith  inherited  from  both  sides  of  her  family.  It  is 
delightful  to  see  throughout  this  remarkable  life  the  ample  fruits  of  this  devotion 
to  intelligent  research  in  difficult  fields. 

The  next  subject  is  neighborhood  houses  and  settlement  work,  and  Mr. 
Robert  A.  Woods  is  to  speak  to  us  on  that  subject.  He  is  an  authority  on  the 
history  of  the  development  of  these  good  works  in  this  community;  and  he 
has  been  familiar  with  Mrs.  Shaw's  participation  in  that  valuable  movement. 
I  present  to  you  Mr.  Woods. 

MRS.  SHAW  was  the  former  rather  than  the 
reformer.  She  was  one  of  the  very  first  of  the 
constructors  in  community  terms.  The  kindergarten 
once  off  her  hands,  she  took  up  the  problem  of  child 
and  mother  education  for  the  years  of  infancy.  The 
day  nursery  was  exalted  by  Mrs.  Shaw  into  an  educa- 
tional institution,  and  not  a  mere  agency  of  material 
relief.  As  such,  it  prepared  the  way  for  the  settlement 
work  that  was  to  follow. 

When  sloyd  instruction  was  assumed  by  the  public 
schools,  Mrs.  Shaw  was  not  content  with  building  up 
a  school  for  the  training  of  sloyd  teachers ;  she  pro- 
ceeded to  carry  out  the  varied  logic  of  her  experiment 
through  trade  classes,  instruction  in  artistic  handi- 
crafts, and  a  prevocational  school. 

It  was  my  good  fortune  to  see  Mrs.  Shaw  from  time 
to  time  when  she  was  transforming  her  day  nurseries 
into  settlement  houses.  There  was  not  a  single  fine, 

5° 


broad,  free,  downright  principle  in  this  new-formed 
democratic  enterprise  to  which  she  did  not  instantly 
and  instinctively  respond, —  that  a  high  average  of 
capacity  and  training  must  be  drawn  upon,  that  the 
members  of  the  local  staff  must  wholly  involve  them- 
selves in  the  scene,  that  the  largest  freedom  and  in- 
centive to  personal  expression  should  be  taken  for 
granted,  that  the  program  should  be  read  out  of  the 
protean  book  of  local  life,  and  that  the  neighbors 
should  be  drawn  in  as  participants  and  partners. 

She  had  already  gone  eagerly  into  the  work  of  social 
clubs  for  working  girls  and  boys  at  a  time  when  this, 
now  everywhere  recognized,  educational  agency  was 
in  its  earliest  beginnings.  Besides  developing  her  al- 
ready established  neighborhood  centers,  she,  as  one 
of  the  greatest  Americans  who  was  also  an  immi- 
grant, created  a  new  type  of  settlement  house  which 
has  successfully  specialized  upon  the  training  of  our 
new  citizens.  From  out  of  it  has  come  a  new  educa- 
tional function,  that  of  vocational  guidance. 

No  racial  distinctions  were  ever  registered  in  con- 
nection with  any  of  her  enterprises.  Her  insistence 
upon  this  principle  has  been  the  means  of  preserving 
neighborhood  unity  and  loyalty  even  across  the  color 
line. 

Throughout  the  country  there  have  been  not  a  few 
instances  in  which  settlement  houses  have  been  sus- 
tained wholly  or  chiefly  by  individual  large  donors. 


In  nearly  all  cases,  such  association  brings  repression, 
not  stimulus.  Mrs.  Shaw  has  always  been  the  inspirit- 
ing, vitalizing  leader.  She  has  been  one  of  a  group  of 
colleagues,  first  among  equals,  a  true  sister  superior. 
Her  mind  was  always  imbued  with  great  motives  and 
principles.  She  was  in  the  fullest  sense  the  daughter 
of  one  of  the  greatest  disciples  of  nature.  She  was 
always  ready  to  learn  from  the  humblest  member  of 
any  of  her  working  forces.  She  had  those  two  con- 
clusive marks  of  the  highest  personal  power,  —  the 
insight  of  the  seer  to  discern  surprisingly  the  meaning 
of  apparently  unfamiliar  situations,  and  an  unlimited 
capacity  for  detail  and  for  the  remembrance  of  facts. 
She  had  a  thorough  system  by  which  each  house  and 
staff  had  all  its  functions  clearly  set  off,  and  through 
which  she  minutely  followed  up  the  efficient  prose- 
cution of  their  work.  All  her  houses  were  always  in 
the  fullest  fellowship  with  every  similar  and  related 
endeavor  in  the  city,  for  the  sake  of  every  value  that 
might  come  from  mutual  re-enforcement.  True  to  the 
principle  of  which  she  was  one  of  the  first  exponents, 
that  the  municipality  should  be  adding  new  educa- 
tional functions  to  its  broad  scheme  of  service,  of 
recent  years  she  took  the  lead  in  the  extensive  appli- 
cation of  some  of  the  motives  of  the  settlement  by 
means  of  the  school  center. 

None   understood   better   than   she   that   the   most 
radical   of  all  reforms   is   the   emancipation   of  the 

5* 


human  spirit  from  within,  and  the  direct  development 
of  its  co-operative  powers.  Yet  she  was  prepared  to 
do  her  thoughtful  part  in  support  of  any  measure  of 
legislation  or  public  administration  which  gave 
promise  of  sapping  the  sources  of  misery,  or  of  ex- 
panding the  opportunities  of  life.  She  was  awake  to 
the  need  of  profound  economic  readjustments,  and 
we  are  told  that  she  was  giving  some  of  the  last  days 
of  her  life  to  the  great  problem  of  the  equitable  dis- 
tribution of  the  national  income.  It  was  such  a  com- 
bination of  faculties,  of  interests,  of  pursuits,  that 
made  one  always  feel  in  conversation  with  Mrs.  Shaw 
the  impress  of  a  statesmanlike  mind,  and  realize  that 
she  might  easily  have  fulfilled  the  duties  of  any  higher 
post,  if  there  were  such. 

Exceptional  achievement  in  these  diversified  human 
relations  is  never  possible  to  the  person  who  is  not  to 
the  depths  of  subconsciousness  a  friendly  person.  Mrs. 
Shaw  always  and  under  all  circumstances  was  sponta- 
neously so.  She  actually  embodied  the  essence  of  the 
true  ideal  of  national  culture  —  worlds  apart  from 
another  much  vaunted  sort  —  which  is  expressed  in 
the  watchwords,  "  sweetness  and  light."  She  was 
simple  in  a  way  which  this  age  can  hardly  under- 
stand ;  yet  wise  as  a  spirit  that  had  come  from  afar. 
She  had  that  inextinguishable  gaiety  of  heart  which 
sometimes  seems  predestined  as  the  foil  to  great  sor- 
rows. Carrying  that  authority  which  comes  of  large 

53 


bounty  and  a  soul  sincere,  and  unconsciously  inti- 
mating in  her  presence  something  almost  august,  she 
was  always  ready  in  full  degree  for  the  interplay  of 
minds  in  whatever  group  she  was. 

She  was  so  unfailingly  young  in  affairs  most  of 
which  were  thought  to  be  particularly  the  property 
of  youth  itself,  she  was  so  full  of  vitality,  that  it  is 
impossible  to  imagine  her  life  as  ended.  On  this 
Easter  Day,  the  bright  hope  of  immortality,  let  us 
think  of  her  as  forever  young ;  as  one  who  has  gone 
from  among  us  to  the  fulfillment,  in  some  vaster 
sphere,  of  service  here  begun.  And  so  we,  her  fellow- 
workers,  proudly  salute  her  as  we  say  farewell.  When 
another  great  citizen,  Phillips  Brooks,  passed  beyond 
the  earthly  scenes,  it  was  said  of  him,  and  we  now 
repeat  it  of  her  : 

"  Never  to  the  mansions  where  the  mighty  rest, 
Since  their  foundation,  came  a  nobler  guest." 


54 


SUFFRAGE 

*MRS. 


Introduced  by  'Dr.  Eliot. 

DURING  the  last  twenty  years  of  her  life  Mrs.  Shaw  took  a  strong  interest  in 
suffrage  for  women  and  participated  generously  with  personal  service  and  money 
in  the  various  organized  efforts  to  advance  this  cause  throughout  the  country. 
Mrs.  Maud  Wood  Park  can  tell  us  something  of  what  she  did  for  this  great 
movement.  I  present  to  you  Mrs.  Park. 

OUR  tribute  to  a  woman  who  was  noble  and 
kind  in  a  rare  degree  is  to  record  her  loy- 
alty to  her  own  sex.  Her  interest  in  suffrage  began 
twenty  years  ago  when  a  meeting  of  representative 
women  was  called  by  Mrs.  Mary  Hutcheson  Page, 
and  Mrs.  Shaw  listened  with  grave  attention  to  the 
proposal  that  that  group  of  women  should  do  active 
work  in  Massachusetts  and  contribute  money  to  the 
campaigns  throughout  the  country. 

From  that  time  on  Mrs.  Shaw  dedicated  a  constantly 
increasing  part  of  her  time  and  means  to  the  funda- 
mental work  of  raising  the  quality  of  humanity  by 
raising  the  political  and  social  status  of  women.  She 
became  convinced  that  the  equality  of  women  before 
the  law  was  indispensable  to  social  progress  that  should 
be  permanent.  Thereafter  she  shared  with  her  accus- 
tomed generosity  in  every  one  of  the  campaigns  in 
Western  states,  so  many  of  which  resulted  in  victories. 

In  the  local  work  in  Boston  she  gave  her  time,  and 
particularly  gave  her  courage,  to  every  effort  and 

55 


every  step  in  the  movement.  For  sixteen  years  she 
served  as  president  of  the  Boston  Equal  Suffrage  As- 
sociation for  Good  Government,  which  she  founded, 
and  that  office  meant  a  real  and  constant  leadership 
in  every  detail  of  the  work  except  presiding  at  meet- 
ings, a  public  prominence  that  she  shrank  from  with 
characteristic  modesty. 

As  an  evidence  of  the  quality  of  her  leadership  I  will 
read  her  last  message  to  our  association,  a  letter  which 
breathes  her  spirit. 

Dear  Members,  Co-workers  and  Friends : 

Yes,  dear  "friends"  for  we  are  united  by  ties  of  the 
most  sacred  character  in  the  undertaking  of  a  work 
which  is  vital  and  which  binds  us  to  co-operate  and 
strive  to  the  utmost  of  our  ability. 

We  are  together  again  after  a  short  and  temporary 
lull,  during  which  a  taste  of  rest  and  an  opportunity  to 
look  within  have  tended  only  to  ensure  new  consecra- 
tion and  a  new  determination  to  give  ourselves  wholly 
to  this  great  work. 

Our  National  President  has  made  known  her  plan 
of  work  for  us.  Let  us  unite  again  with  redoubled  zeal 
and  pray  for  the  strength,  inspiration  and  insight  to 
come  up  to  her  standards,  and  pledge  our  faith  to  her 
and  to  each  other  to  give  our  all:  hand,  mind,  and 
heart,  to  accomplish  more  this  year  than  ever  before. 

Let  us  enter  this  new  year  of  work  united  and  happy 
in  the  coming  together  again  for  the  fulfillment  of  our 
pledges  of  the  past,  united  in  the  sure  hope  of  realizing 
the  form  of  government  which  Lincoln  has  immortal- 

56 


ized  by  the  words,  "Government  of  the  people,  for 
the  people,  by  the  people,"  and  which  at  last  is  really 
to  be  by  the  whole  people. 

With  this  in  view  we  are  indeed  bound  to  be  brave, 
active,  and  joyful*  in  doing,  each  one  to  the  very  ut- 
most, what  we  can,  with  all  our  might  and  with  all  our 
heart  and  with  all  our  soul. 

Read  the  enclosed  list  of  work  and  decide  what  you 
will  do,  and  then  do  not  fail  to  do  even  more. 
Yours  with  love  always, 

PAULINE  AGASSIZ  SHAW. 


In  our  work,  as  in  her  other  activities,  she  had  a 
far-seeing  vision  combined  with  an  extraordinary 
attention  to  details.  She  eagerly  shared  in  every 
feature  of  our  work,  never  excusing  herself  from  the 
smaller  services  because  they  were  small,  nor  because 
of  the  heavier  burden  that  she  was  carrying.  While 
she  had  the  power  to  see  forward  to  the  thing  that 
was  going  to  develop  into  something  useful,  she  had 
the  other  power  of  communicating  her  spirit  to  others 
and  making  us  all  wish  to  follow  and  be  like  her. 
We  always  felt,  as  Miss  Blackwell  has  said,  "  the 
comfort  of  her  kindness."  There  was  about  her  a 
selflessness,  a  habit  of  thinking  of  others  and  never  of 
herself,  the  beauty  of  holiness  that  shone  in  her  face 
and  beckoned  us  on  to  better  things. 


*  How  like  her  those  words  are  :   "brave,  active,  and  joyful."  — M.  W.  P. 

57 


I  will  close  by  reading  a  sonnet  which  seems  to  me 
to  have  caught  the  essence  of  a  beautiful  life  beauti- 
fully lived. 

TO    PAULINE   AGASSIZ   SHAW 

To  help  and  soothe  and  hearten  and  to  love 
The  more  despised  to  cherish  all  the  more, 
In  sacred  trust  she  kept  her  chanced- on  store, 

Giving  herself,  not  casting  from  above ; 

As  if  her  generous  hand  she  would  unglove, 

Or  would,  unthanked,  need's  own  to  need  restore. 
What  love  to  envy  is,  what  peace  to  war, 

Her  nature  was  to  them  that  snatch  and  shove. 

The  brooklike  laugh  of  youth  unforfeited, 

The  face  where  shone  the  light  her  spirit  fed, 
The  veil  of  manners  woven  by  the  soul, 
The  ready  will  to  make  her  part  the  whole ; 

Gone,  gone  with  all  our  gratitude  unsaid, 

So  leaving  us  to  follow  where  she  led. 


PEACE 

J.    <M4LCOLM 


Introduced  by  Dr.  Eliot. 

ALL  her  life  Pauline  Agassiz  Shaw  was  trying  to  eliminate  evil  from  human 
lives  by  introducing  and  fostering  good.  She  thought  that  was  the  way  to 
improve  human  society  and  government.  Hence  she  took  constant  interest  in 
all  efforts  to  prevent  war  and  assure  peace;  and  from  the  time  it  was  formed 
she  took  an  active  part  in  the  Massachusetts  Branch  of  the  Woman's  Peace 
Party.  Mrs.  J.  Malcolm  Forbes  knows  all  about  her  connection  with  the 
Peace  Movement.  I  present  to  you  Mrs.  Forbes. 


WERE  it  not  for  our  great  love  for  Pauline 
Agassiz  Shaw,  there  are  some  of  us  who  feel 
we  could  not  accede  to  the  request  to  speak  of  her 
to-day,  for  it  seems  impossible  to  give  more  than  a 
suggestion  of  her  wonderful  personality.  But  for  her 
sake  we  must  try,  because  a  tribute,  however  inade- 
quate, may  carry  forward  some  of  the  inspiration 
which  we,  who  have  had  the  joy  of  working  by  her 
side,  have  received  in  full  measure. 

Others  have  spoken  of  her  achievement  in  bringing 
to  Boston  new  ideas,  and  seeing  that  these  were 
made  concrete. 

At  the  beginning  of  some  of  these  undertakings  she 
encountered  indifference,  skepticism,  and  even  hos- 
tility, but  she  succeeded  in  demonstrating  so  com- 
pletely the  value  of  the  causes  she  espoused,  that  the 
public  finally  perceived  their  worth  and  gave  sympa- 
thetic support. 

59 


Thousands  of  men,  women,  and  children  are  leading 
happier  and  better  lives  because  she  had  the  foresight, 
the  courage,  and  the  persistence  to  introduce  or  to 
amplify  measures  for  their  health  and  uplift. 

It  is  my  privilege  to  speak  of  her  interest  in  the 
international  relations  movement.  Pauline  Agassiz 
Shaw  was  a  seer,  combining  with  vision  unusual 
discrimination.  These  qualities  made  her  realize  the 
peace  movement  as  fundamental  and  inevitable. 

More  than  once  she  said  to  me,  "  The  two  great 
causes  in  the  world  to-day  are  the  peace  movement 
and  equal  suffrage  !"  "They  are  independent,"  she 
once  continued,  "  but  suffrage  will  help  to  establish 
more  quickly  the  overthrow  of  the  war  system." 

She  belonged  to  the  Massachusetts  Peace  Society 
from  its  foundation,  she  enthusiastically  believed  in 
the  American  School  Peace  League,  and  she  joined 
the  League  to  Enforce  Peace  and  the  World's  Court 
League.  But  of  all  the  international  relations  organ- 
izations in  which  she  was  interested,  the  Massachusetts 
Branch  of  the  Woman's  Peace  Party  was  nearest  her 
heart.  Soon  after  the  Branch  was  formed  two  years 
ago,  I  was  given  the  delightful  commission  of  asking 
her  to  be  its  first  vice  president.  I  found  her  at  her 
home  in  Jamaica  Plain,  and  I  recall  how  radiantly 
beautiful  she  looked  as  she  sat  surrounded  by  the  pic- 
tures and  flowers  she  loved.  She  delightedly  said 
"  yes  "  to  the  proposal  of  our  executive  committee. 

60 


"But,"  she  insisted,  "you  must  promise  never  to  ask 
me  to  preside."  In  her  modesty  she  imagined  that 
she  could  not  do  this,  and,  while  not  accepting  her 
self  appraisal,  we  respected  her  wish. 

She  attended  regularly  and  enthusiastically  our  Ex- 
ecutive Board  sessions,  and  tried  never  to  miss  any  of 
the  weekly  lectures  at  Pilgrim  Hall  nor  any  of  the 
meetings  of  the  Study  Class. 

Three  years  ago  she  went  for  the  first  time  to  the 
Conference  on  International  Arbitration  at  Lake 
Mohonk,  and  her  eagerness  and  interest  had  all  the 
fullness  and  freshness  of  that  of  a  girl. 

At  Lake  Mohonk,  as  elsewhere,  she  became  the 
center  of  whatever  group  she  was  in  ;  and  of  course, 
many  of  the  men  and  women  —  students,  professors, 
and  statesmen  —  there  gathered,  asked  to  be  presented 
to  this  distinguished  looking  woman,  of  whom  most 
of  them  had  heard.  But  Mrs.  Shaw  herself  never 
dreamed  she  was  this  center  of  attraction. 

I  cannot  express  the  loss  she  is  to  each  one  of  us 
who  is  working  for  the  movement  to  substitute  the 
system  of  law  for  the  system  of  war. 

Her  immovable  convictions  made  her  a  pillar  of 
strength. 

Her  firm  judgment,  coupled  with  wide  sympathy, 
and  her  greatness  of  spirit  combined  with  loveliness 
of  manner,  made  her  seem  a  gift  sent  straight  from 
Heaven  to  each  one  of  us. 

61 


Pier  loss  is  irreparable,  but  her  influence  remains. 
Her  example  will  continue  to  strengthen  all  who  are 
working  for  public  welfare  —  especially  the  upholders 
of  unpopular  movements. 

A  great  Massachusetts  woman  and  a  great  world- 
citizen  has  passed  on  to  the  Eternal  Home.  But  this 
earth  is  a  better  place  because  her  luminous  spirit  for 
a  time  has  dwelt  among  us. 


ADDRESS 

'BOOTH 


Introduced  by  T)r.  Eliot. 

MRS  MAUD  BALLINGTON  BOOTH,  whose  work  for  prisoners  is  known  all  over 
the  world,  was  intimate  with  Mrs.  Shaw  for  many  years.  I  think  she  will  tell 
you  what  Mrs.  Shaw's  interest  and  help  meant  to  the  work,  and  what  Mrs. 
Shaw's  friendship  meant  to  herself.  I  present  to  you  Mrs.  Booth. 

IN  rising  to  speak  this  afternoon,  to  add  a  few 
words  to  the  many  that  have  already  been  spoken, 
I  feel  that  it  would  be  easier,  perhaps,  if  I  had  not 
been  so  near  to  the  beloved  one  whose  memory  we 
honor  to-day.  My  sense  of  personal  loss  is  still  so  keen 
that  I  feel  that  it  is  hard  through  the  mist  of  tears  to 
let  others  see  what  I  have  seen  and  feel,  that  which 
my  heart  would  love  to  make  them  feel  of  this  won- 
derful, beautiful,  God  -honoring  personality.  Long 
years  ago  when  I  first  met  her  there  came  to  my 
heart  a  sudden  thrill.  When  I  was  sixteen  years  of 
age  God  took  from  me  my  own  sweet  mother.  When 
I  met  Mrs.  Shaw  I  saw  her  face  again,  and  a  wonder- 
ful feeling  was  mine  that  I  never  lost  in  the  long 
years  of  our  close,  precious  friendship.  She  seemed 
to  step  into  that  empty  place.  And  when  far  out  in 
the  Western  prisons  where  I  was  working,  there 
came  to  me  the  news  that  she  was  gone,  there  came 
that  same  deep  agony  of  loss  that  I  had  felt  in  my 
early  childhood. 

63 


I  was  in  the  far  West  at  the  hour  that  she  passed 
on,  and  when  I  heard  the  news  I  wrote  to  those  dear 
daughters  who  stood  by  her  side.  When  their  letters 
came  back  to  me  my  heart  was  thrilled.  They  were 
not  letters  filled  with  mourning  and  repining  and 
anguish  and  grief.  They  were  letters  filled  with  the 
beauty  and  glory  of  the  message  she  left,  and  they 
said  to  me,  "  Oh,  if  you  could  have  been  there,  you 
would  feel  as  we  do ;  we  wouldn't  call  her  back." 
And  then  they  told  me  that  just  at  the  end  her  face 
was  brightened  by  the  glory  that  made  it  beautiful 
even  in  death,  and  she  said,  "  Oh,  isn't  it  beautiful, 
isn't  it  beautiful !  "  I  recalled  how  she  had  sat  with 
me  in  the  sunset  hour,  and  looking  at  the  golden, 
crimson  glory  of  the  dying  sun,  she  turned  to  me 
and  said,  "Oh,  isn't  it  beautiful;  almost  like  the 
opening  of  the  gates  of  Heaven !  "  So  in  the  sunset 
hour  of  her  dear  life  God  gave  her  to  see  the  beauty, 
and  on  her  face  those  who  wondered  caught  its  re- 
flection. Let  us  forget  the  dirge  as  we  hear  only  the 
music  from  that  other  world.  Can  we  not  truly  rise 
on  this  Easter  day  to  say,  "  O  death,  where  is  thy 
sting?  O  grave,  where  is  thy  victory  ?"  When  we 
place  our  lilies  in  the  ground  in  the  fall,  when  we 
plant  our  seeds  in  the  spring,  do  we  turn  away  and 
mourn  them  dead  ?  Oh,  no,  we  have  our  vision.  As 
we  turn  away  we  see  already  the  blooming  glories  of 
the  white  flowers.  So  can  we  feel  this  dear  one  lives, 


and  the  work  of  which  you  have  heard  from  all 
these  witnesses  this  afternoon  lives  on.  Back  from  the 
silence  comes  her  own  dear  sweet  message. 

There  is  so  much  I  would  like  to  say.  Would  that 
I  could  give  a  eulogy  fitting  her  work,  her  power. 
Someone  has  said  she  was  the  greatest  woman  our 
country  has  produced.  There  are  many  of  us  who 
say  truly  that  is  so.  We  have  heard  of  her  work; 
we  have  heard  of  her  charity  ;  we  have  heard  of  her 
words.  We  know  what  she  has  accomplished,  and 
yet  her  greatest  force  and  power  was  not  in  what  she 
did,  but  what  she  was.  She  brought  that  wonderful 
touch  of  sincerity,  of  a  soul  that  breathed  out  its 
sweetness,  and  it  is  what  she  was  that  will  last  with 
us  forever.  Some  people  must  have  their  names 
written  in  letters  of  gold  on  marble,  that  future  gene- 
rations may  know  them  as  great,  but  the  name  of 
Pauline  Agassiz  Shaw  has  been  written  with  the 
tender  touch  of  a  loving  hand,  with  the  beautiful 
painting  of  the  ideals  for  which  she  stood  in  the 
hearts  of  countless  thousands.  Her  work  has  been 
spoken  of  truly  as  a  work  of  construction.  She  brought 
education  to  the  ignorant,  training  to  the  home,  care 
for  little  children,  wonderful  development  in  the 
schools.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Shaw  probably  more  than 
any  other  two  persons,  have  done  more  for  the  pris- 
oners of  this  country,  and  for  the  broken,  the  hope- 
less, the  abandoned.  In  my  work  within  dark,  gray 

65 


walls,  Pauline  Agassiz  Shaw  has  been  my  greatest 
help  and  inspiration,  and  it  is  through  her  generosity 
and  that  of  Mr.  Shaw,  that  comfort  and  help,  and  a 
new  start  and  a  new  home  have  been  brought  to  tens 
of  thousands  of  men  whom  the  callous  world  looked 
upon  as  outcasts.  Her  face  that  you  have  seen  in  your 
homes,  that  you  have  loved  to  welcome,  has  been 
loved  and  watched  by  the  boys  in  Charlestown 
prison,  as  in  sympathetic  tenderness  she  has  looked 
down  by  my  side  at  their  faces.  I  have  hardly  been 
inside  those  walls,  or  rarely  spoken  at  any  public 
gathering  in  and  around  Boston,  that  she  has  not  been 
with  me  or  in  my  audience,  an  inspiration  to  us  all. 
The  sweet  self-effacement,  the  blessed  influence  of 
her  life  will  live  on  with  us  forever,  and  her  sacred 
message  to  you  to-day  will  be  a  call  to  fill  the  place 
that  she  has  left. 

You  have  heard  of  her  love  for  the  cause  of  woman- 
hood. Are  there  any  women  here  in  Massachusetts 
who  will  forget  their  ease,  and  sacrifice  themselves 
to  take  up  her  work  ? 

You  have  heard  of  her  vision  of  international  peace, 
that  vision  which  all  must  work  for  though  "It  must 
be  born  through  the  agony  of  war ;  but  the  day  will 
come  when  every  nation  will  have  laid  aside  its  sword 
and  when  hands  in  fraternity,  in  the  great  wondrous 
peace  that  is  coming,  will  be  clasped  as  brothers  and 
sisters  in  one  bond  of  love."  Are  there  any  here  who, 

66 


with  their  love  for  country,  will  rise  up  and  hasten 
that  glad  day  ? 

I  saw  a  flag  one  day,  a  beautiful  standard,  but  its  gold 
fringe  was  torn,  its  stars  and  stripes  were  stained  an 
ugly  brown,  its  silk  was  bullet  riven ;  but  it  was 
beautiful  because  of  its  story.  It  had  been  gallantly 
carried  by  seven  men  who  loved  their  country  more 
than  their  life.  As  each  standard  bearer  fell  another  one 
sprang  into  the  breach  and  carried  on  the  flag.  She 
has  dropped  the  standard.  Will  you  take  it  up  ?  She 
who  carried  it  so  bravely  has  gone  out  into  the  fuller, 
brighter  life.  Will  you  let  your  admiration  and  your 
eulogy  for  this  great  and  noble  woman,  this  citizen 
who  had  the  vision  for  her  country,  —  will  you  let 
your  love  and  praise  be  only  in  words,  or  will  you 
here  and  now  consecrate  your  life  to  the  purer,  better 
service,  taking  up  the  standard  that  she  passes  on 
to  you  ? 


67 


OTHER  ACTIVITIES  OF 
MRS.  SHAW 


The  Roxbury  Neighborhood  House 
The  Roxbury  Neighborhood  House  began  its  history 
as  one  of  Mrs.  Shaw's  kindergartens  and  day  nurseries 
in  1878.  In  1906  it  was  merged  with  other  neigh- 
borhood ventures  and  took  its  present  name  and 
organization. 

To-day  the  Roxbury  Neighborhood  House  carries 
on  twenty  -  five  clubs  for  girls,  boys,  and  women ; 
classes  in  carpentry,  cobbling,  cooking,  claymodeling, 
dressmaking,  dancing,  gymnastics,  housekeeping,  child- 
ren's gardens ;  stamp  savings  in  the  House  and  in  the 
nearby  factories  and  laundries;  music  department  giv- 
ing lessons  in  piano,  violin,  and  singing ;  a  lunch  room 
for  working  girls;  a  kindergarten  (run  by  the  Wheel- 
ock  School),  a  summer  playground  and  baths,  a  sum- 
mer camp  in  New  Hampshire  ;  a  co-operative  buying 
department  for  the  neighborhood  mothers ;  and  a 
library,  game-room,  and  pool-room,  open  afternoon 
and  evening.  The  Baby  Hygiene  Association  has  a 
station  at  the  House  and  a  weekly  clinic.  Besides 
these  various  activities  the  House  provides  from  its 
staff  a  grammar  and  high  school  visitor  and  a  visiting 
housekeeper. 

About  sixteen  hundred  people  use  the  House  weekly. 

Social  Service  House 

Social  Service  House  was   established    in    1901    by 
Pauline  Agassiz  Shaw.  The  aim  was  to  advance  the 

70 


civic  and  social  betterment  among  those  in  the  neigh- 
borhood of  the  North  Bennet  Street  Industrial  School. 
For  eight  years  it  was  operated  by  Mrs.  Shaw  as  an 
experiment  in  social  work.  It  was  her  plan  that 
Social  Service  House  be  conducted  as  a  model  home 
in  the  neighborhood  and  serve  as  a  connecting  link 
between  the  community  and  the  Industrial  School. 
At  the  present  time  many  of  the  usual  settlements 
activities  are  maintained,  such  as  classes  in  knitting, 
sewing,  cooking,  weaving,  embroidery,  toy-making, 
and  various  forms  of  recreational  activities ;  with 
strong  emphasis  laid  upon  developing  civic  responsi- 
bilities. During  the  summer  the  House  maintains  a 
vacation  school  for  young  children  in  the  city,  a  large 
farm  in  the  country  for  mothers,  children,  and  young 
people,  and  a  Caddy  Camp  in  the  mountains  for  boys. 
In  1908,  at  Mrs.  Shaw's  request,  the  management  of 
Social  Service  House  was  taken  over  by  the  Board 
of  Managers  of  the  North  Bennet  Street  Industrial 
School. 

The  Cambridge  ^Neighborhood  House 
The  Cambridge  Neighborhood  House,  79  Moore 
Street,  Cambridge,  was  opened  as  a  day  nursery  and 
kindergarten  in  1878.  It  is  situated  in  Cambridgeport 
about  halfway  between  the  State  House  and  Harvard 
Square,  in  the  center  of  a  district  given  over  to  man- 
ufactures and  to  the  homes  of  working  people.  The 

71 


plant  comprises  four  buildings :  the  central  house  on 
Moore  and  Harvard  Streets,  a  three-story  tenement 
house,  and  two  one-family  houses  operated  as  a  hous- 
ing experiment. 

The  work  was  at  first  exclusively  concerned  with 
little  children  and  their  mothers ;  and  has  developed 
according  to  the  needs  of  the  neighborhood  and  the 
times.  One  of  the  earliest  Mothers'  Clubs  was  started 
here.  An  experimental  trade  school  for  girls  was  op- 
erated for  three  years  and  then  taken  over  by  the  city. 
As  the  community  has  outgrown  the  need  of  its  ser- 
vice in  one  direction,  the  House  has  met  other  needs 
as  they  arose.  Perhaps  its  most  distinct  contribution 
to  social  work  has  been  the  demonstration  of  the  prac- 
ticability of  conducting  work  in  a  community  of 
mixed  colored  and  white  with  entire  disregard  of  the 
color  line. 

The  activities  of  the  House  during  the  past  year  have 
been  as  follows : 

Domestic  Science  Garden  and  Playground 

Music  Year- Round  Camp 

Clubs  and  Classes  Summer  Outings 

Montessori  School  Supervised  Recreation 

Library  and  Reading  Room  Health  Station 

Lunch  Room  for  Working  Girls  Housing  Experiment 

Animal  Rescue  League  Branch  Study  of  Civic  Conditions 
Neighborhood  Studies 

The  Toggles  Street  Neighborhood  House 

The  Ruggles  Street  Neighborhood  House  situated  at 

the  corner  of  Ruggles  and  Cabot  Streets  in  Roxbury, 

72 


is  a  settlement  house  of  the  type  for  which  Mrs. 
Shaw  cared  especially, —  small,  and  in  close  neighborly 
relations  with  the  people  around  it. 

It  was  opened  in  1878  as  a  day  nursery  and  kinder- 
garten. It  has  developed  the  usual  functions  of  a  set- 
tlement. The  emphasis  has  been  laid  on  work  with 
children,  handicraft,  and  gardening.  It  was  one  of 
the  first  settlements  to  develop  a  community  interest 
in  gardening.  The  activities  for  the  past  year  have 
been  : 

Domestic  Science,  Class  Work  Visiting  Housekeeping 

Classes  in  Drawing,  Dancing,  Sewing 

Printing,  Dressmaking,  Gymnasium  work 

Embroidery,  Cobbling 

Lunch  Room  for  Working  Girls     Music     Dramatics 
Library     Gardening     Playground     Health  Station 
Caddy  Camp     All-year-round  Camp     Summer  Outings 
Co-operation  with  City  in  Elmwood  Gymnasium 
Co-operation  with  Hospitals,  Schools,  Educational  Institutions 
and  Civic  Organizations 

The  Cottage  Place  Neighborhood  House  &  T)ay  Nursery 
The  Cottage  Place  Neighborhood  House  and  Day 
Nursery  is  an  interesting  piece  of  co-operation  be- 
tween the  city  and  private  philanthropy,  the  city 
furnishing  part  of  an  outgrown  school  building  and 
part  of  the  expense  of  upkeep,  while  Mrs.  Shaw  fur- 
nishes the  staff  of  workers  and  the  organization. 

The  emphasis  is  laid  on  the  care  of  young  children 
and  the  leadership  of  the  older  women  in  their  civic 

73 


responsibilities.  Clubs  and  classes  similar  in  character 
to  those  of  the  preceding  two  houses  are  conducted 
here  during  the  winter.  A  flourishing  summer  school 
is  carried  on  during  the  long  vacation  of  the  city 
schools.  The  nursery  co-operates  with  the  Milk  and 
Baby  Hygiene  Association  in  conducting  a  weekly 
clinic. 

The  North  Bennet  Street  Day  Nursery 

The  North  Bennet  Street  Day  Nursery,  in  the  heart 
of  the  Italian  district,  serves  chiefly  the  working 
mothers  of  that  race.  In  addition  to  the  usual  func- 
tions of  the  day  nursery,  it  gives  special  attention  to 
careful  investigation,  follow-up  work  on  rejected 
cases,  and  to  the  problem  of  the  family  as  a  whole, 
of  which  the  nursery  child  is  but  a  part. 

Long -Sought -For  Lodge 

Long-Sought-For  Lodge  on  Long-Sought-For  Pond, 
in  Westford,  is  the  vacation  house  serving  the  four 
neighborhood  houses  and  day  nurseries. 

The  plant  includes  a  farm  of  about  twenty  acres 
with  woodland  and  water  front,  a  farmhouse,  a  large 
barn,  and  a  bungalow.  It  is  open  all  the  year  round, 
for  week-end  parties  in  winter,  and  the  larger  groups 
in  summer. 

The  Children's  House 

The  Children's   House,  recently  built  on  the  same 

property  as  Long-Sought-For  Lodge,  accommodates 

74 


between  forty  and  fifty  children  from  the  nurseries. 
The  children  go  up  as  soon  as  the  schools  close  and 
remain  until  they  re-open  in  September.  The  parents 
go  up  for  week-ends.  The  improvement  of  the  child- 
ren in  appearance,  habits,  and  health  at  the  end  of 
the  season  is  marked. 


The  Cotta&e 

The  Cottage  Place  Library,  housed  in  the  same 
building  as  the  Cottage  Place  Neighborhood  House 
and  Day  Nursery,  is  a  neighborhood  "  socialized  li- 
brary "  working  in  co-operation  with  the  city  library 
and  the  Neighborhood  House. 

The  'Vocation  'Bureau 

In  1907,  when  the  classes  for  wage  earners,  grouped 
under  what  was  called  the  Breadwinners'  Institute, 
were  about  to  be  organized  for  the  year  at  the  Civic 
Service  House,  it  was  thought  that  the  help  of  a  wise 
counselor,  alive  to  the  daily  economic  problems  of 
the  workers,  at  the  disposal  of  the  men  and  women 
who  came  to  the  classes,  would  be  of  benefit  and  make 
the  class-work  more  fruitful. 

Most  fortunately,  the  late  Prof.  Frank  Parsons  was 
one  of  the  volunteer  members  of  the  House  stafT  and 
the  suggestion  enlisted  his  warm  support.  He  sub- 
mitted plans  for  a  Vocation  Bureau  which  would  be 
open  not  only  to  the  members  but  to  all  who  wished 
to  come  for  help  in  their  life-work  problems. 

75 


Mrs.  Shaw  was  consulted  about  the  plan,  and  she 
saw  at  once  the  far  -  reaching  character  of  such  an 
undertaking.  The  first  Vocation  Bureau  in  the  country 
was  opened  in  the  fall  of  1907.  Professor  Parsons 
lived  but  a  year  to  see  the  start  of  what  has  become 
to-day  a  recognized  function  of  public  education. 

That  children  should  not  go  out  into  employments 
without  guidance,  expert  information  about  occupa- 
tions, and  supervision  during  employment  has  long 
been  a  tenet  among  social  workers.  The  Vocational 
Guidance  Movement  is  attempting  to  give  a  practical 
solution  to  this  problem.  In  scores  of  cities  and  towns 
throughout  the  country  there  are  public  school  or 
privately  supported  bureaus  for  vocational  guidance. 
In  a  score  of  universities  there  are  courses  for  training 
workers  in  this  new  field.  Mrs.  Shaw  has  made  pos- 
sible the  course  given  in  the  Department  of  Education 
at  Harvard  University.  The  Vocation  Bureau  has  been 
conducting  the  vocational  guidance  courses  at  Boston 
University  and  Teachers  College,  Columbia  Uni- 
versity. Ten  years  ago  there  was  no  literature  on 
the  subject  of  vocational  guidance.  A  recent  biblio- 
graphy published  by  the  Harvard  University  Press 
lists  references  on  this  subject,  all  of  recent  date,  in 
more  than  eighty  pages. 

Among  the  books  issued  by  the  Vocation  Bureau 
are  Choosing  a  Vocation;   The  Vocational  Guidance  of 
Youth ;  Touth,  School,  and  Vocation ;  Readings  in  Voca- 

76 


tional  Guidance;  The  School  and  the  Start  in  Life; 
The  Shoe  Industry;  The  Law  as  a  Vocation;  Advertising 
as  a  Vocation;  Opportunities  in  the  Department  Store, 
and  many  other  occupational  books  and  pamphlets. 

Five  years  ago  the  Vocation  Bureau  organized  the 
first  association  of  employing  executives  connected 
with  the  principal  stores,  factories,  and  public  service 
corporations  in  and  near  Boston.  The  Bureau  an- 
nounced what  has  since  been  called  the  New  Profes- 
sion of  Handling  Men,  and  formulated  the  plans  of 
a  modern  employment  or  personnel  department.  It 
proposed  a  training  course  for  those  who  hire  and 
supervise  employees  in  industrial  establishments.  The 
Tuck  School  of  Finance  and  Administration  at  Dart- 
mouth College  was  first  among  the  colleges  to  under- 
take such  a  course.  To-day  there  are  ten  associations  of 
employment  executives,  organized  in  a  National  Con- 
ference, and  a  new  literature  dealing  with  socialized 
phases  of  employment  is  in  process  of  development. 

From  the  beginning  of  this  work  Mrs.  Shaw  gave 
unstintedly  and  continuously  of  her  thought,  time, 
counsel,  and  help.  It  was  her  vision  of  what  voca- 
tional guidance  and  right  employment  methods  would 
do  for  education  and  industry,  which  made  possible 
the  growth  of  these  enterprises. 

The  Vocation  Bureau,  and  the  movements  which  it 
has  made  possible,  were  only  one  expression  of  Mrs. 
Shaw's  love  for  humankind,  one  trail  of  the  many  she 
blazed  for  the  socializing  of  school,  work  and  life  itself. 

77 


The  fivtC  Service  House.     A  Social  Settlement  and  a  School  for 

Citizenship.      .      .      Founded  IQOI 

The  Civic  Service  House  was  founded  in  1901  when 
immigration  reached  its  half-million  mark.  The  fol- 
lowing ten  years  the  new  immigration  poured  in  at 
the  phenomenal  rate  of  a  million  a  year.  Boston  was 
then  the  second  largest  port,  and  the  North  End, 
where  the  old  immigration  station  is  still  located,  was 
the  great  gateway,  second  only  to  Ellis  Island. 

Mrs.  Shaw  saw  the  opportunities  for  civic  service 
in  this  field  and  dedicated  the  House  at  the  very  out- 
set to  the  constructive  citizenship  of  adult  immigrant 
wage  earners,  men  and  women  seeking  a  foothold  on 
new  soil.  Someone  said  that  "  the  cause  of  good  gov- 
ernment and  patriotism  is  halting  because  the  rear 
detachments  of  our  citizenship  are  not  brought  for- 
ward into  the  contest."  This  is  especially  true  of  our 
new  citizenship  groups,  the  great  inarticulate  minori- 
ties who  often  hold,  in  many  a  local,  state  and  na- 
tional campaign,  the  balance  of  power  on  election 
day.  The  Civic  Service  House,  during  the  sixteen 
years  of  intensive  field  work,  therefore  addressed 
itself  particularly  to  the  task  of  articulating  these 
powerful  minorities  to  our  body  politic. 

Since  1901,  practically  three  waves  of  immigration 
swept  over  the  North  End  and  out  into  the  great 
beyond  of  the  American  continent  —  the  Jewish,  the 
Italian,  the  Polish.  To  each  movement  the  House 

78 


contributed  its  quota  of  leadership,  —  men  and  women 
schooled  in  democracy.  In  the  early  days,  when  the 
night  school  was  but  a  way  station  for  young  boys 
who  had  prematurely  left  the  day  school,  the  Civic 
Service  House  Night  School  was  a  pioneer  in  this 
field  of  Americanization.  Later,  when  the  public 
night  schools  began  to  function  in  the  neighborhood, 
we  were  able  to  contribute  not  only  interpreters  and 
teachers  specially  trained  for  the  new  task,  but  new 
text  books  designed  to  meet  the  particular  needs  oi 
adult  immigrants.* 

Out  of  our  New  American  clubs  graduated  also 
many  of  the  splendid  group  of  young  men  now  con- 
ducting the  large  and  active  North  End  School  Cen- 
ter. Through  the  pioneer  efforts  in  vocational  guid- 
ance by  Professor  Frank  Parsons  with  an  immigrant 
group  on  the  roof  garden,  one  summer  evening,  came 
forth  the  first  two  volumes  of  the  new  literature  on 
this  subject :  "  Choosing  a  Vocation,"  and  "  Voca- 
tional Guidance  of  Youth." 

Out  of  our  social  service  groups  also  developed  the 
volume  on  "  The  Field  of  Social  Service,"  especially 
intended  for  volunteers  and  widely  used  by  members 
of  women's  clubs." 

"  Street-Land,"  the  product  of  an  educational  experi- 
ment under  the  auspices  of  the  Boston  Public 
Schools,  in  the  guidance  and  supervision  of  the  vast 

*  Bibliography  :   "  Civic  Reader  "  and  "  Civics  for  New  Americans." 

79 


army  of  immigrant  children  trading  in  the  city  streets 
represents  another  phase  of  Mrs.  Shaw's  interest  in 
the  complex  problems  of  the  immigrant  family.  As 
a  result  of  a  prolonged  co-operative  campaign  a  new 
park  was  established  in  the  North  End.  Our  share  in 
the  nation-wide  study  of  the  "  Boy  Problem,"  under 
the  auspices  of  the  National  Federation  of  Settlements, 
shortly  to  be  published  in  book  form,  again  would 
have  been  impossible  without  Mrs.  Shaw's  generous 
interest  and  support. 

This  world  struggle  is  forcing  on  us  daily  new  prob- 
lems, yes,  a  new  terminology.  Such  words  as  "  for- 
eigner" and  "alien,"  so  repugnant  to  Mrs.  Shaw's 
democratic  instincts,  have  been  forced  back  on  the 
American  public  with  ominous  meaning.  We  are  now 
talking  of  "alien  friends"  and  "  alien  enemies."  Many 
of  us  who  have  fought  these  tendencies  are  now  obliged 
to  reinterpret  these  terms  in  the  light  of  new  and  un- 
precedented conditions.  The  World  War,  therefore, 
clearly  emphasizes  the  need  of  not  only  an  interna- 
tional but  a  domestic  immigration  policy.  We  are 
therefore  glad  to  record  our  share  in  the  successful 
consummation  of  a  protracted  movement  in  this  Com- 
monwealth for  the  establishment  of  a  State  Immigra- 
tion Commission  which  will  henceforth  co-operate 
with  all  social  agencies  in  the  effort  to  develop  a 
distinctively  American  program,  all  the  more  urgent 
to-day  when  democracy  is  being  challenged. 


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